Vaccination rant

My parents, when I was growing up, made the choice not to get us our shots. When I became a mother, I knew I would have to make decisions regarding vaccinations as well. As soon as my daughter was born, I began searching for information.

I feel like I was pretty rational about the decisions I made. I felt I could strike a balance between the danger of getting the vaccine and the danger of not getting the vaccine. There were some vaccines that I felt were important, and some that I felt weren't necessary and just added a chance of an adverse reaction.

The MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) was one that I felt was probably necessary. Since my children were getting it, and since they offered it to me in the hospital just after my son was born two weeks ago (and getting rubella while I'm pregnant makes me a little nervous), I decided to get the shot.

A few days ago, I had a mild fever and I felt like crap. I just thought I was sick. Then I started to break out with the worst case of hives that I have ever seen Friday night. By Saturday morning, I looked awful. I went into the local community care center (not my regular family doctor, since his office was closed).

The staff was great, the wait was short and the doctor was polite and nice. BUT he refused to admit that the hives could be a reaction to the vaccination. According to the information sheet I had received at the hospital (written by the CDC, by the way) breaking out with hives within 14 days of receiving the vaccination is considered an adverse reaction. It's a serious allergic reaction.

But the doctor only went on a spill about how he trusted vaccinations, had vaccinated all 6 of his kids, how he'd never seen an adverse reaction in 14 years of practice, how it was like Russian roulettte to not vaccinate ... yada yada ...

Yeah, he probably hadn't seen any adverse reactions if he'd closed his eyes to it like that every time. I hadn't eaten, worn, or used anything different in the last few weeks. There wasn't anything else it could be. It was well within the time frame given by the CDC, and HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPORTING IT TO THE CDC, LIKE THE INFORMATION SHEET INSTRUCTS.

The information sheet says that less than one out of a million doses causes an allergic reaction. But how accurate is that number? If doctors are ignoring your reactions because of their blind allegiance to herd immunity and this irrational fear that parents won't vaccinate, they probably aren't reporting all the cases. The number could be a lot larger than that.

Luckily, I knew how to report it myself, and I did. Luckily, I'd done my research and I knew what I was talking about, even if the doctor didn't.

THIS is why you can't turn your health care entirely over to a health care professional. We have to educate OURSELVES and take responsibility for our own health. We have to know what's going on.

Most recent articles ...

This article is on a different topic than I usually write about. I had a lot of fun writing it, though, and I think it was one of my favorites that I've ever written. The link will take you to a digital magazine, and my article is on page 12.

10 Summer Nature Activities for toddlers

Here is another article that is more along the lines of what I normally do. It came out in the June 1st issue of Progressive Forage Grower:

Custom harvester with customer satisfaction in mind

Sunday citation

This is a great quote that I found in connection with 1 Samuel 16:7:

"It is not possible to judge another fairly unless you know his desires, his faith, and his goals. Because of a different environment, unequal opportunity, and many other things, people are not in the same position. One may start at the top and another at the bottom, and they may meet as they are going in opposite directions. ... How can we, with all our weaknesses and frailties dare to arrogate ourselves the position of a judge? At best, man can only judge what he sees; he cannot judge the heart or the intention, or begin to judge the potential of his neighbor." (N. Eldon Tanner, "Judge not that ye be not judged," Ensign, July 1972, p. 35.)